DEAR SIGMUND by David A. AdamsA concerned family friend of an anonymous
"subject" sends a Case Study to Sigmund Freud for evaluation. Multiple
head injuries, childhood trauma, an abusive foster father... Sound familiar?

ARTHURIAN TRILOGY by Peter
CooganThe Blade's resident deep-thinker, David Adams,
has this to say: "Coogan has attempted to combine every legend in the Western
World with Tarzan of the Apes, and the story, if Completed, would be dazzling.
Conversation with Coogan would leave the average mythographer gasping for
air."

In the Great Audience Chamber of the Imperial Palace at Torquas, where
a million years ago white Jeddaks had given the orders that sent mighty
fleets out upon the waves of the vanished Throxeus, a green Jeddak glared
at the source of the interruption.

"Issus take you, can you not see that I am involved in important affairs
of state?" Indeed, the Jeddak held in his lower left fist a small black
thoat, captured from his opponent and removed from the jetan board only
seconds before the scout appeared at the door. His opponent was the Jed
of one of the larger clans making up the Horde of Torquas, and would soon
be a formidable challenger for the rulership. It was important that he
be kept in his place, and a victory at jetan over his liege lord would
be an unthinkable impertinence.

But the intruder, though nervous, stood his ground. He was a young warrior
who had but recently won his second name, and the solitary circuit of the
city's perimeter was his first major assignment of trust. Executing the
martian equivalent of "present arms" with the sword in his upper right
hand, he clutched at a squirming object with the other three. "I thought
it might be important," he said.

"Well, what is it?" snapped the Jeddak.

"I don't know, sir," replied the guard. "I found it out on the
desert, making amorous advances at one of the rocks. There was a landing
platform with several deflated balloons a short distance away." He held
the thing out, revealing it to be a metallic rectangle somewhat smaller
than his breastplate, with a reflective surface apparently made up of a
number of small mirrors, and six wheels that spun crazily in various directions.
"It seems to be very stupid."

"Let's see it," ordered the Jeddak, setting down the captured jetan
piece and reaching for the object. It seemed to sense somehow that it was
being transferred from hand to hand, because in addition to the spinning
of the wheels, a strange spring-like motion of the axles caused it to seem
to buck.

"No, Dork Dufus, it is not stupid," replied the Jeddak, examining it
carefully. "It is terribly clever, for it is a machine -- some sort of
spying device no doubt, and probably sent out by one of our enemies. Helium,
maybe, or Ptarth or Jahar. The scientists among the red men are quite skilled
at making this sort of fiendish device."

He scrutinized the thing more closely, and noted the small lens at the
front.

"See, here is its eye, to observe our deployment --" He took his dagger
and smashed the lens with the pommel. Then, reaching around to the back
of the strange object, he ripped off the antenna. "And here is its transmitter,
to send images of what it sees to our enemies. Well, it will see no more,
and it will report nothing."

He turned to the wall behind him, hung with banners, helms, swords,
and even the propeller of a flier, all captured in battle. Finding a bare
space on the wall of approximately the right size and shape, he looped
a length of thoat hide around the middle of the object and hung it up.

"You have done well, Dork Dufus. Once again the enemies of Torquas have
been foiled in their attempt to destroy us with their cowardly and underhanded
tricks."

The trophy, with its solar panels turned to the wall, slowly decreased
its struggles, like a dying insect, and was finally still.

And on earth, observers were puzzled when the Pathfinder, in the middle
of analyzing a rock, suddenly showed nothing but sky. Shortly afterward
it stopped transmitting and their monitor screens went black.

,

The ERB
FilesExtraterrestrial Research Bureau...The fiction is out there...By Andre (Cosmic Spider) Vandal

{{Eerie Music}}

A red haired woman is walking down a dark and sinister looking
underground corridor, at the end of it she comes upon a door with the letters
E.R.B. on the top, and a piece of paper stuck in the middle that
says 'Go away! Nobody's in here but the Bureau's most laughed at!'.
She reluctantly opens the door to find a tall and weird looking, but yet
hadsome man standing beyond it.

MULDER: Hi Scully, come on in.

SCULLY: I got your email, you have something to show me?

MULDER: Do I ever! Have a seat and let me show you something that
will blow... you... away!

Agent Scully rolls her eyes and looks for a seat closest to the door
so she may leave as quickly as possible, and waits while agent Mulder scrambles
to set up his archaic slide projector and turn off the lights.

MULDER: Do you remember reading about that Mars probe which was said
to have disapeared and was considered lost?

SCULLY: Yes, of course, billions of dollars in sensitive equipment were
lost in that project, it was suppose to activate itself when it reached
Mars, but it failed, it didn't respond to any control messages sent, and
it was filed as an L.I.S.... Lost In Space.

MULDER: Well that's what they told the public, but it's not entirely
true, the truth is the probe did activate itself, and did take a photograph
before it was destroyed by some alien life on Mars using a ray gun that
made all the metal of the probe disintegrate, and when they saw the photo
that came in, they had to cover it up in order to prevent a world wide
panic.

SCULLY: Aren't you tired of all these conspiracy theories Mulder? Cause
I sure am.

MULDER: Ah! But this time I have definite proof, look at this!

Mulder presses the button on his slide projector, and
a blurry photograph appears on the wall. Mulder adjusts the picture
with the lens of the projector to bring it to a sharper blurry image.

SCULLY: So? It's a photo of what looks like a boat in a red desert,
are you trying to make me believe that this was photographed on Mars?

MULDER: Exactly! But take a closer look at the picture, notice
the shadow on the ground? Acording to calculations, this boat is
hundreds of feet in the air!

SCULLY: Mulder! Listen to yourself, you're not making any sense!
A flying boat, in a desert, on Mars? What would be keeping it up
hundreds of feet in the air Mulder, Helium? Or maybe it's Cavorite?

MULDER: Always the skeptic, hey Scully, never willing to believe, well
I had a portion of this photo enlarged and enhanced, which proves beyond
the doubt that this was not from Earth. Now take a look at this!

Mulder presses the button on the projector once again
to show a second photograph that is even more blurry than the last, and
tries without success to focus on the photo. Finally he gives up and with
a big grin looks at agent Scully, obviously expecting some major response.

SCULLY: Yeah, so, what's this suposed to be?

MULDER: Darn it Scully! Even when I show you some indisputable
photographs, you still don't believe it! Look at it, this is
obviously a big black man holding something that looks like a sword, and
this can't be anything else but an alien. Look at it, it has four
arms and it's all green!

SCULLY: Indisputable? Mulder this photo is so blurry that what
I see there, with a lot of imagination I might add, could be a Mister-T
action figure standing beside a modified Gumby toy! Oh Mulder, this
is even more stupid than the time you came up with that Moon Men invasion
conspiracy theory, hell, it almost beats that hollow Earth one! or
how about that tribe of lost samu...

Mulder madly switches the projector off and the lights
on, and then goes to sit at his desk pouting. Scully, felling a bit
sorry for being so mean, sighs and approaches to sit near him.

SCULLY: Listen Mulder, even if this was remotely true, what do you want
us to do about it, croak and hope to get reincarnated on Mars? We
don't have rocket ships to go and investigate this you know. We could
try wishing ourselves there but I doubt very much that will work.
And where did you get that photograph anyway?

Seeing a somewhat renewed interest from Scully, Mulder
starts scambling across his desk for the file on the case. He finds it,
and pulls out an evelope.

MULDER: We received an anonymous letter a few days ago so we don't know
who sent it yet, but I had top specialist in the field investigating and
we were able to narrow it down quite a bit. Although the stamped
mark on the letter was smudged, we were able to discover that it came from
California, and we did find a Blond hair in the letter, and from that we
discovered that it belongs to a woman. And look, in the letter she says
that this was an OFFICIAL N.A.S.A. top secret photo. Official, Scully!

SCULLY: So basically what you're saying is that you've narrowed it down
to blond female in California who can spell the word official?

MULDER: And who knows about NASA.

SCULLY: And who knows about NASA, yes. Now is that all you've
got Mulder, cause it ain't much to go on.

MULDER: Well I had my friends at Tarzana look into the Mars/Alien connection...

MULDER: Did not! It an actual group, and they discuss aliens on
Mars all the time.

Mulder takes out a manila pouch from the file and pull a thick pile
of folded computer paper out of it. He lets it drop to the floor
while holding the first page, unfolding it into a lengthy scroll.

MULDER: Here are some very incriminating transcripts Scully, look at
this word, "Kaor", it's not any word I could find on Earth. And what
about this discussion about a 'Pinback' transaction with an elderly woman,
it's obviously some alien technology, she was even offered Barsoomian money
for it, I've checked Scully, there is no such thing as Barsoomian money,
not on 'Earth' anyway. Don't you see Scully, this is real proof,
and...

Agent Scully at this point gets up and slowly walks toward the door
while rubbing her temples. Concerned, Mulder also set up to intercept
her before she leaves.

MULDER: What's wrong Scully?

SCULLY: I have a splitting headache.

MULDER: You sure get those very often... you know, you should have that
checked out by one of our specialists, it could be an alien implant.

SCULLY: I don't really get them very often Mulder, I only get them when
I'm around you.

MULDER: That's it! It makes perfect sense, 'they' have implanted
a device in your brain in order to prevent you from seeing things my way
by giving you pain whenever you are around me. Don't you see how
this all fits Scully, it's a conspiracy against me!

Scully keeps on walking out the door and closes it behind
her, felling quite relieved to be out of that office and away from agent
Mulder.

MULDER: Poor Scully, if only I could make her understand.
Wait a minute... I don't think I have ever seen Scully and an Alien at
the same time! hummmm.

To: Sigmund Freud of Vienna
From: Esmeralda Jones of London and Baltimore

My Dear, Herr Doctor Freud:

I am writing to you today about a very delicate matter that has become
a great concern to me. Allow me to introduce myself: I am in the employ
of a family that is well-known and respected throughout the British Empire,
and beyond. During my long years of service, I have come to be more a part
of this family than an employee. They are as dear to me as my own flesh
and blood. And so, I write to you in the hope that you may have some insight
regarding an affliction that is becoming ever more difficult to ignore.
As the holder of several PhDs in the fields of medicine, psychiatry and
animal behavior, I have reached my own conclusions about the case. And
yet, I would very much appreciate your opinion on the matter before I implement
my
intended course of treatments.

As you may have read in the popular press, one of our family members
has been so unfortunate as to have fallen into patterns of behavior that
are quite unseemly for a normal, civilized human being. In fact, I must
confess that his actions have caused not just a little amount of embarrassment
to our entire family, and word of his behavior is even whispered about
in the House of Lords. I'm sure you can see our concern, and we hope you
will be able to handle this case with the maximum amount of discretion
and privacy your position in the medical world will allow. All I dare ask
of you is that you will make a study of this case and send us the results
of your diagnosis by private mail. I am convinced no radical restraint
is warranted. However, if you feel that a need for commitment to a mental
institution should be desirable in the future, please act with the utmost
secrecy as further notoriety in this matter would only cause additional
pain and distress to our already distraught family. I know you are an honest
and capable man as shown in your work on the unfortunate Russian known
as the Wolf-Man. Please consider this the plea of a completely desperate
woman on behalf her family and friends.

The following is a brief description of our dear relative, whom I ask
that you only refer to in the future as "The Subject." All the details
of the case will not be given for the sake of brevity in this first inquiry.
I only include the important particulars in hope that it will fire your
imagination and whet your desire to take up our sad case, which we hope
will finally give us and a poor soul some relief from a tragic misery.

The Subject was orphaned at the age of 13 months and was raised entirely
by a loving and caring foster mother. His foster father was mentally and
physically abusive toward the child, beating him when the mother was not
present for protection.

The Subject is a very strong, robust type of man. When he was ten years
old he was fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and far more agile
than the most practiced athlete ever becomes. And day by day his strength
was increasing.

The Subject has been known to remain in a condition of amnesia for the
better part of a week, and then quite suddenly regain his normal awareness
as he is about to commit a murder. His awareness and recovery is remarkably
sudden and complete, without the slightest period of confusion, in which
he
must regain his senses and equilibrium.

Significant facts of the case

#1. At the age of ten, The Subject met with an accident (not occasioned
by his foster father) in which he suffered severe injuries. There were
throat, chest, and arm injuries where the flesh was torn away with much
blood lost. A portion of his chest was laid bare to the ribs, three of
which had been broken. One arm was nearly severed, and a great piece had
been torn from his neck, exposing his jugular vein. He lay for days in
a wild delirium of fever. However, within a month he was as strong and
active as ever.

The Subject was very intelligent, and he lived primarily upon the vegetarian
diet preferred by his mother. Once at an early age (before the age of thirteen)
the subject fell from a tree, quite forty feet to the ground, alighting
on his back in a thick brush which broke the force of the fall. However,
a cut upon the back of his head showed where he had struck the tough stem
of the shrub and explained his unconsciousness. In a few minutes he was
as active as ever.

It was at about this time, the age of thirteen, when The Subject killed
his foster father while protecting his mother from her husband's violence.

At the age of eighteen, The Subject's mother was killed in a violent
way in public. When her son arrived, she was already dead. His grief and
anger at her death was unbounded, and he fell upon her body and sobbed
out the sorrowing of his lonely heart. To lose the only creature in all
one's world who ever had manifested love and affection for one, is a great
bereavement indeed.

After the violent death of his mother, The Subject himself became a
killer. Soon, he began killing men as well as an assortment of animals.
His methods were usually quick, not involving torture to any degree, employing
a rope, a knife or other sharpened weapons, or bare-handed strangulation
-- the combination he used in killing the slayer of his foster mother.

#2. Around the age of eighteen, The Subject sustained the first of many
head injuries. This primary injury was a partial scalping in which his
scalp was half torn from his head, so that a great piece hung down over
one eye. In this case, by ten days he was quite sound again, except for
a terrible, half-healed scar, which, starting above his left eye, ran across
the top of his head, ending at the right ear. His powers of recovery were
quite remarkable.

The occasion of this injury took place as The Subject was attempting
to protect an old female from a beating by a young male. It was a selfless
act, because the subject leaped into a dangerous situation where he could
have expected bodily harm. After this event, The Subject changed his mode
of dress and appearance and began larger associations with strangers and
other people who were not related to him.

# 3. Some of the events in this case are difficult to place in a consecutive
time frame, but it seems that from the occasion of the events reported
above, The Subject became rather accident-prone, despite his strong, physical
nature. On one occasion, he fell into a hole in the ground and was knocked
unconscious. He fell backwards and struck his head on a wooden stake. There
was a swollen spot at the base of the brain which indicated the nature
of his injury. In this case, he came to rather quickly, and was fully conscious
in a few minutes.

#4. The Subject was again knocked unconscious; this time by a falling
tree during a lightning storm. (He lived in a heavily wooded area and was
fond of walking there in all seasons in all kinds of weather.) This time,
it took him much longer to regain consciousness.

#5. The Subject was beaten into an unconscious state by rocks and dead
tree limbs. He became conscious in a few minutes, but only slowly realized
what had happened.

#6. At this point, The Subject seems to be having problems with vivid
nightmares. There are problems of distinguishing reality from dreams --
even in waking states. He seems to not even being aware of dreaming before
this age (around eighteen.) In this flux, he mistakes reality for a dream
and is bitten in the shoulder by a wild animal.

After these experiences, The Subject seemed to be prone to violence.
When he was angered, he could become deaf with rage, and a red mist seemed
to cover his eyes as he performed violent deeds. He is known as a killer
of animals and men.

#7. Around the age of twenty, The Subject suffered two gun shot wounds,
one in the left shoulder and one in the left side -- both bloody flesh
wounds. He was confined to bed for several days, but he considered it to
be a superficial incident -- and exhibited signs of impatience regarding
the necessary medical attention he was provided with. He described the
quite serious injuries as "pin pricks."

#8. Later, The Subject was gun shot again in a grazing blow to his head,
a slight scratch which had furrowed the flesh across his temple and rendered
him unconscious. The wound bled profusely, so that dried and clotted blood
smeared his face and clothing. He regained consciousness after some time,
but remained silent for hours. Later, he was pummeled for a short time
with stones and sticks, then, bound by ropes, kicked about the face and
side by a man with heavy boots. He suffered from thirst, and felt waves
of madness sweep over him. By now, The Subject saw himself as another creature
when killing.

At this point in the history of this Subject, he marries. The union
soon produces a single child, a son. There are no further children in this
marriage, but the husband and wife remain together and faithful only to
each other. However, The Subject seems to have a very difficult time remaining
at home, and often goes away on long journeys. He is more often separated
from his wife and son than with them.

#9. The Subject seems to become constantly involved in violent situations
where he is often in grave danger. His body is covered with scars from
beatings, cuts and puncture wounds. He is again rendered unconscious by
a blow from a blunt, wooden object, and one leg is torn and lacerated to
the point that it becomes difficult to walk. When he becomes conscious,
The Subject forces himself to walk a long distance in such a condition
of great rage that the great scar upon his forehead stands out almost continuously
in a vivid scarlet line. During this journey, he screams out loud over
his anger and frustration, startling even himself at the force of his rage.
In this condition, he murders a man with his bare hands, and with a gesture
of disgust throws the corpse aside without a further thought or comment.
He is then reunited with his wife and resolves to live a quiet and sedate
existence. The subject seems to be a normal human being, despite the many
accidents and violent situations involving murder. He seems to be able
to resolve any mental conflicts or feelings of guilt without compunction.

#10. During this hiatus, The Subject seems to have suffered a certain
loss of his usual keen awareness of his situation and surroundings. He
takes a large financial loss due to mismanagement of funds. Noticeably,
he loses his sense of smell. It is under these conditions that The Subject
receives another violent blow to his head, another injury that leaves him
in a state of total amnesia. He is not aware of his name or anything of
his past before the blow. He does not remember the accident, nor does he
recall anything of what had led up to it. He can walk and function in a
fairly normal way, but he makes mistakes at times and falls into situations
where he before would have taken more care. He is curious about his surroundings,
but does not remember the names or relationships of many previously familiar
objects or people.

The Subject remains in this condition of amnesia for the better part
of a week, and then quite suddenly regains his normal awareness as he is
about to commit a murder. His awareness and recovery is remarkably sudden
and complete, without the slightest period of confusion in which he must
regain his senses and equilibrium.

Here my account must break-off, for the present, as I am called away
on urgent business that cannot be put off even another hour. (Young Jackie
is yapping up a storm.) I am sending you this incomplete account with our
fervent prayers that you will pity our situation and look into this case
at your earliest opportunity.

Sincerely,
Esmeralda Jones. PhD, and nanny.

END

Copyright 1997, David Arthur Adams

.

.

Arthurian
Trilogy(Set in ERB's universe)By Peter Coogan

Preface: (The trilogy as a whole needs a name -- or a name for the
series.)While working on my master's thesis in Arthurian Literature at the
University of Wales in Bangor, I came across a history of Sir Yvain written
by his son, St. Kentigern. This history tells of Yvain's Grail Quest, which
took him to the ancient kingdom of Midia in Africa, to Avalon, and to a
land which Kentigern claimed lay inside the hollow Earth. Filed alongside
Kentigern's history, but uncataloged, was a packet of notes written by
Tarzan's grandson, the current Earl of Greystoke. These notes expanded
and supplemented Kentigern's history, explaining how Yvain and his party
passed through the land
of the Mangani -- the great apes who raised Tarzan -- and the ruins
of an outpost of Opar, the lost Atlantean colony discovered by Tarzan,
and ultimately to Pellucidar, the inner-earth world described by Edgar
Rice Burroughs in a series of novels. I tracked down Lord Greystoke, who
agreed to let me publish the tale as fiction, an agreement similar to the
one his grandfather had reached with Burroughs. I augmented the saint's
history and the earl's notes with my own research, and this is the story,
largely true, that I put together.

Book 1: The Quest of the Holy Grail (working title, need a real title)Near the end of the Quest of the Holy Grail, King Arthur sends a quartet
of his subjects, under the guise of a diplomatic mission to Rome, to investigate
a legend he came across years before during his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land. That story, told in a book reported to be the secret history of Joseph
of Arimathea, recounted how Joseph fled Jerusalem with the Holy Grail and
instead of going west towards Rome and his imperial enemies, he went south
along the Nile to Midia, a kingdom founded by Nathan, a son of David, near
the headwaters of the Nile. From there, St. Joseph proceeded across to
Africa and thence to Britain to found the abbey at Glastonbury. Arthur
believed that Joseph may have left the Grail in Midia and concocted the
legend of bringing it to Britain in order to safeguard the Grail and its
true location. The four on the mission are: Sir Yvain, a knight who was
too young to be called to the Grail Quest at its inception, but one perhaps
worthy to achieve it; Sir Dagonet, publicly Arthur's fool, but in reality
a key operative in Arthur's secret intelligence organization, the Order
of Aurelius; Lady Vivian, a Lady of the Lake and daughter of Nineve and
Merlin; and Lady Alyne, a nun well-versed in ancient languages and literature
and adept in the arts of alchemy.

They sail from Britain accompanied by Sir Grimmace, a member of Mordred's
diplomatic service and ostensibly the leader of the mission to Rome. After
stops along the pilgrimage route through Brittany and Gaul, they cross
to Carthage from the Mediterranean coast, intending to go from there to
Alexandria, Jerusalem, and finally to Rome. Arthur publicly declared that
the mission was intended to reestablish contacts between his kingdom
and the holy sites along the pilgrimage route, ending with a reconciliation
with the emperor at Rome. On the passage to Carthage, Sir Dagonet, following
secret instructions from Arthur, kills Modred's spy Sir Grimmace, explains
the true nature of the expedition to the rest of the party, fakes a ship
wreck, and sails for the west coast of Africa to follow Sir Joseph's map
to Midia.

Shortly after landing, they observe the Dum Dum -- the ritual hunting
dance of the Mangani, or great apes. Skirting the exhausted apes, who collapse
at the end of their orgiastic frenzy, they are ambushed by Gozan, an African
native who has been raised by the Mangani, as Tarzan would be centuries
later. Before anyone is seriously injured, Vivian recognizes Gozan's language
as one she learned from Merlin, her father, who traveled extensively in
his youth. Gozan agrees to lead the party east as he was planning to explore
in that direction to investigate a legend he has heard about a city of
whites who have been interbreeding with the Mangani in their area. Led
by Gozan, they come to the edge of a large settlement, where they accidentally
kill a cow while hunting for game. While butchering the cow, they are discovered
and taken into custody by a party of minotaurs, who charge them with the
murder of a close cousin of their king.

The minotaur city, Minopolis, had been settled several centuries earlier
by a band of minotaurs, raised by Minos of Crete to be an invincible army.
For several years prior to the coming of Theseus and the slaying of the
original minotaur, King Minos had bred his monster with both human and
bovine mates. Shortly after Theseus' escape, Minos met his death in a steam
bath designed by Daedalus. As part of the peace treaty between Crete and
Athens, the minotaur tribe was to be loaded on to a ship and sunk far out
at sea. A few of the minotaurs discovered the scheme and forced the human
navigator to sail the ship to Egypt, where they expected to be welcomed
as the children of Hathor, the cow goddess who gives birth to the sun each
morning. But the Egyptians had at one time sent their children every
year to their deaths in the labyrinth as tribute to Minos, and so drove
the hated minotaurs, symbol of their past subservience to Crete, into the
desert. Eventually they wandered into the interior and settled in a ruined
outpost of Opar, thought to be a lost colony of Atlantis. Here they lived,
intermarrying with Africans taken in war. And their cattle.

In punishment for their crime, the Britons and Gozan are sentenced to
die in the arena as bull dancers, an element of Cretan heritage preserved
by the minotaurs. After a series of engagements, in which Dagonet invents
bullfighting using a cape, they escape from Minopolis. Gozan goes his way,
off to discover Opar, forging Tarzan's trail to the lost city centuries
ahead of the ape man.

Several days' march to the East, they come upon another set of Oparian
ruins that marks the end of their map. In these ruins lives Piscatorus,
Latin for fisherman, a Roman soldier who served under Julius Caesar, nearly
500 years before. Piscatorus was a common soldier in an expedition sent
by Caesar to rediscover the lost colonies of Atlantis and the last survivor
of a battle between his legion and the remnants of the Atlantean colony.
Severely wounded in the foot and nearly lame, Piscatorus found a temple
with a fountain whose waters flowed into a stone bowl, placed there centuries
earlier by the Atlanteans, the continual drinking of which kept him in
a state of stasis, neither aging nor healing. Dagonet and the rest are
unsure whether to continue, as their map only leads this far, and because
Vivian asserts that Piscatorus and the carved stone bowl may represent
the mythic origins of the Fisher King and the Grail, following the Celtic
tradition of the Grail as a cauldron of rebirth. Piscatorus denies all
knowledge of the Fisher King and the
Grail and their Christian origins, having never heard of Christianity,
since he left Rome long before the birth of Christ. After spotting some
hieroglyphs carved into the wall of the temple, Alyne matches them with
a passage from Joseph's history, which indicates that he passed through
this area on his journey. They find the underground river that supplied
the waters of the fountain and that the saint had taken in his journey
from Midia.

Traveling the slow-flowing underground river, they come out in Midia,
a city hidden by a ring of mountains. St. Joseph escorted ______ , Mary's
niece, to Midia so that she could marry David, the descendent of David's
son Nathan who founded the lost city. They married and bore _______, again
uniting the two great houses of the Jews, as Mary had done when she married
Herod's son ______ and gave birth to Jesus (explained in detail by Robert
Graves in King Jesus). The history of the second child, the second coming
of the messiah, is explained to the Britons who also learn that Joseph
did take the Grail to Britain. The Midians have lived in peace for half
a millenium, impervioius to death by age or disease due to an elixer later
discovered by Tarzan, practicing a pure Christianity based on Christ's
two commandments: Love thy God and Love thy Neighbor. Their mission ended,
the Britons find their way to the Nile and thence to Rome. At Rome they
are greeted with the news that Arthur is dead and Camelot fallen. There
is also a message from Arthur, delivered by the secret Order of Aurelius,
"Go West."

Book 2: The Search for Excalibur (working title, need a real title) Alyne and Vivian decipher Arthur'smessage, "Go West," to mean
that they should follow him to his resting place, traditionally thought
to be Avalon. But as a Lady of the Lake, Vivian knows that Arthur would
not refer to Avalon, the axis mundi, or world navel, as "west" because
it's a world "center." Through agents of the Order of Aurelius, they find
Barinthus, the pilot who took Arthur to his resting place across the sea
to the west. Barinthus also led the famous St. Brendan to his "fair isle,"
which in fact was the American continent. Barinthus is dying, but he is
able to provide them with sea maps and directions, which the quartet follows,
eventually landing on the American shore. There they find a rune stone
carved by Morgan directing them to Arthur's location.

At the close of the Battle of Camlan, Arthur had lain dying. Morgan
and Bedevere helped him into Barinthus' boat and they set off for Turtle
Island, leaving Bedevere behind to set up a false grave for Arthur on the
Isle of Man, otherwise known as Avalon. Morgan had foreseen the fall of
Corbenic in the year 800 as the final victory of the Anglo Saxons over
the British Isles and so knew that Arthur's sleep would have to be elsewhere.
Bedevere's son, also named Arthur, was supposed to accompany them as sword-bearer,
but he has been murdered and replaced by Mordred's son Morgos, who so closely
resembles Bedevere's son that no one notices the switch in all the haste
to leave. Arthur's wound largely heals on the voyage, but he is still dying
slowly, kept alive only by Morgan's magic and the life-maintaining properties
of Excalibur's scabbard.

During their first night on the American shore, Morgos steals off with
Excalibur, leaving Arthur with a false copy of the sword forged years earlier
by Mordred. Morgos makes his way south to the kingdom of the Olmecs in
Mexico and plants the sword into a stone, knowing that Arthur is the only
one who can withdraw it and that, in his weakened and dying state, he will
never survive the journey. Mordred planned this separation of king and
sword because he foresaw his own death and resurrection and Arthur's return
as king in Avalon centuries later and sought to prevent that return by
denying Arthur his sword, following the proverb: "The king without a sword,
the land without a king."

Unaware, at first, of the theft of Excalibur and unable to wait for
Morgos' return, Morgan takes Arthur to the land of the mound builders near
the Ohio River and establishes him in a temnos, or magic circle, built
by the Native Americans there. It will keep him alive until Excalibur is
returned to him. She heads west, leaving a message about where she is heading
for Vivian and the others, whom she knows to be following. The four Britons
locate Arthur, but he does not know where Morgos has taken the sword. Vivian
uses egeomancy to locate Excalibur, as the sword has been stuck into a
stone resting on a ley point, the meeting point of several ley-lines, which
are the "channels" the Earth's energy flows in. The Earth's ley-energy
prevents any but Arthur from drawing it forth. To make it possible for
Yvain, Arthur's closest relative of the four, to draw the sword from the
stone, the king shaves his head and has Vivian knit the hair into a glove
for Yvain to wear, incorporating magic knots and charms into the weaving.
To further ensure that the young knight will be able to withdraw the sword,
Arthur cuts off his own right pinkie and forces Yvain to do the same, thus
ensuring that part of Arthur's hand will be in the glove for the drawing.
The quartet follows the leylines south, traveling on the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers.

They arrive in Olmeca to find the Olmecs being ruled by a vampire, who
has come from Egypt and set himself up as a divine king. This vampire,
________, committed the ultimate sin of killing the vampire who made him.
He fled Egypt and the vengence of his vampire kin on a cargo ship bound
for the land of the Olmecs, with whom the Egyptians had traded for many
years and who are, in fact, the true Atlanteans, but not the founders of
the Oparian colonies, which have a separate origin. Using his supernatural
powers to establish himself as a god and king, ________ instituted the
blood rituals that were later adopted by the Mayans and Aztecs. He has
also transformed Morgos into a vampire to aid him in his rule of the Olmecs.
The quartet arrives and eventually helps the Olmecs to kill _____ and Morgos
and to free themselves from this foreign rule. They return Excalibur to
Arthur, who is then entombed in a mound, and set off on the trail of Morgan
Le Fey.

Book 3: The Golden Apple of Troy (working title, need a real title) Following Morgan's trail, the quartet makes its way to the land of
the Anasazi Indians. Morgan has gone there to be buried sleeping in the
Anasazi caves so that she can rise again when Arthur and Mordred return.
Morgan is very weak, having been wounded by the Jibbenainosay, the "spirit
who walks." The Jibbenainosay is a British spirit of evil conjured by Mordred
to ensure the death of Arthur and Morgan. It took over the body of a knight
of Avalon and followed Arthur's funeral barge to America. It tracked them
to the mound builders, but could not enter Arthur's temnos and could not
take possession of any Native Americans, and so the Jibbenainosay began
to kill Indians, hoping to deprive Arthur of all aid and support. Quickly
discovered by the mound builders, the Jibbenainosay was driven away and
it went in search of Morgan, whom it found and wounded before she could
set up a temnos. The Anasazi protected her and the Jibbenainosay entered
into total war with them. The quartet arrives and helps the Anasazi to
eradicate the Jibbenainosay, who now has to wait for another Briton to
arrive on the continent before he can have corporal existence again.

Following the defeat of the Jibbenainosay, Morgan sets the quartet on
the trail of the Golden Apple of Troy, the last bit of unfinsihed business
from the Trojan War. The Golden Apple is an Apple of Discord originally
thrown by Eris, the spirit of strife, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis,
parents of Achilles, because she alone of all the gods had not been invited.
The Apple led to the Trojan War because Paris awarded it to Aphrodite when
she promised him the world's most beautiful woman, Helen, in exchange for
awarding it to her as the most beautiful goddess. When Paris took his lovely
reward, with the help of a love arrow from Eros' bow, Helen's husband Menelaus
followed the lovers to Troy and began the decades-long siege. After the
fall of Troy, a Greek warrior, ________, took the Apple from its temple
in Troy and fled south, eventually entering Pellucidar, the world inside
the hollow Earth.

Morgan charged the quartet to return the Apple to its rightful owners,
the Trojans, who are the anscestors of the Britons through Pryam's son
Brut, the founder of Britain. Morgan knows that the crime of the theft
of the Apple has to be avenged to let the ghosts of Troy rest.

They sail down the coast to Antarctica, where they find an entrance
to Pellucidar. The Apple has caused a war between two great powers of Pellucidar
that has gone on since its arrival, shortly after the Trojan War some 1700
years before. The four Britons steal the apple and help to settle the war.
While sailing for Troy, a storm wrecks their ship off the coast of Australia.
The aborigines, the Real People, will not help them to build a boat nor
allow them any materials. The four have lessons to learn and need to walk
across Australia with the Real People. Gradually the Britons abandon their
possessions, with the exception of the Golden Apple and the copy of Excalibur
Yvain has been wielding. Each learns a lesson about him or herself: Yvain
to give up leadership and to trust others' decision-making; Dagonet to
give up all his hidden tools and tricks; Vivian that her magic lies within
herself and not solely within the goddess she relies on; and Alyne learns
to lead. Once across Australia they build a ship with the help of the Real
People and sail for Troy.
They find that the waves of invasions that followed the fall of Troy
have left no Trojans to receive their heritage.

With no place to return the Apple, they decide to take it to safety
in Midia, since they are relatively close to the lost kingdom. Midia is
almost empty when the arrive, with only a few guardians left. The population
has been systematically destroyed by a vampire werewolf, Evingolis, who
had been serving the emporer as a minstrel and overheard Dagonet's report
on the outcome of their Grail quest in the city of Midia to the Order of
Aurelius' Pendragon in Rome. Evingolis is ancient, having been born a werewolf
and later transformed into a vampire while in his human form. The idea
of drinking rich immortal blood excited Evingolis and he arrived in Midia
just in front of his wolf pack, which he pretended to be escaping. He posed
as a minstrel and began to suck the city dry. At first the Midians thought
that the deaths were attributable to wolf attacks, to which they put up
a good defense. By the time they realized their error and discovered the
true culprit, few Midians were left and Evingolis took to hiding and hunting
down the survivors. The besieging wolves killed off the few who attempted
to leave the city to get help, their immortality elixer preventing death
only by disease or age, not injury or accident.

At first the wolves and Evingolis hunt the quartet and the remaining
Midians, but gradually the tide turns and Evingolis is tricked into following
one of the few remaining Midians, doused in the intoxicating menstral blood-scent
of the virginal Alyne, into an airtight tomb, which they seal with alchemy
and magic. Midia is now nearly a ghost town and not a safe place to leave
the Apple, so they travel to Rome and thence to the shattered Britain to
help put the pieces back together and deposit the apple in Merlin's tomb.

Character profiles:Sir Yvain: Son of Sir Owein, whom Chrétien de Troyes made famous
as the Knight of the Lion; grandson to Morgan le Fey and King Uriens. He
was too young to be a Grail Knight when the quest started, but he proved
to be one of the best knights that remained. Forthright and honest. Built
like a bull with legs like oak trees and iron thewed arms. An excellent
swordsman, rider, and jouster. He's Christian, but not deeply so. Tall
with reddish-blond hair. About 18 years old.

Sir Dagonet: Son of Sir Dynaden, Arthur's satirist. Dagonet is
Arthur's fool and jester but this is just a cover for his real activities
as a secret agent, a dragon, in the Order of Aurelius, Arthur's secret
intelligence service. For years he has cleaned up Arthur's dirty business
and engaged in covert activities, including assassination and overthrowing
Arthur's enemies. He frequently saves knights while in disguise, either
as Kay, or in blank armor, so the rescued knights think that they've been
saved by Lancelot. He keeps all sorts of weapons, lock picks, pins, and
poison hidden on his person, braided into his hair, etc. He is tall and
thin with a knife-edged face. Very good with his throwing knives and a
bow, but a mean swordsman too. Not afraid to fight dirty, use poison, or
set traps for his enemies. Puts forward a carefree and clever face, but
is deadly serious about the king's business. About 28 years old, he's been
working as a dragon since his early teens.

Lady Vivian: Daughter of Nineve and Merlin. She was conceived
on Merlin's last night before his sleep. Nineve kept her pregnancy hidden
by gaining weight and keeping Vivian in the womb by dint of magic and drugs
for three years. She makes contradictory claims about who her father is,
and will claim anyone as a father if it furthers a point she is making.
Her eyes change color, an after-effect of the pregnancy drugs taken by
Nineve. She learned a great deal of magic in the womb directly from Nineve
and also spent three years in Merlin's cave coaxing all sorts of lore from
Merlin's sleeping brain. She is good with geomancy, bad with weather magic,
and very good at speaking with the dead. Arthur sent her on the mission
because of her magical abilities and her overall knowledge of hidden things.
Tall and redheaded, like a British battle-queen. About 24 years old.

Lady Alyne: Daughter of Lamorak and granddaughter of Sir Pellinore.
She is a nun, a scholar of ancient and contemporary languages, and a student
of alchemy. She has been raised in a nunnery, but was generally left to
pursue her studies by herself because of a large grant of land her grandfather
gave to
the church. Arthur sends her on the mission because of her knowledge
of languages and history. She often acts as an interpreter for the group
when dealing with peoples of the Mediterranean, Near East, and Northern
Africa. She is rather small and elfin looking, dark-haired. She is not
given to physical confrontation, but voracious about knowledge. About 21
years old.

END

Copyright 1997 by Pete Coogan

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